I don't see how this generalizes. If this is supposed to work for any "the {modifier} {subject}" phrase, it won't, because if you want to say "the white cow" yo

I don't see how this generalizes. If this is supposed to work for any "the {modifier} {subject}" phrase, it won't, because if you want to say "the white cow" you'll end up with "Le vache blanche," which is wrong. You could store `(format: "%3$@ %1$@ %2$@", modifier: "blanc", subject: "cheval", article: "Le")` but now you've got so many gender associations to keep track of, and a phrase that will still only work as a subject (because in German, all of the words will change if the white horse is the object of the sentence). EDIT: Oh you're just talking about sprintf specifically, I see what you mean. I agree with your other comment that it's ideal to pass entire sentences to the translators when possible, which is what I'm getting at here too.